


Through Frozen Fire

by Rebel_On_The_Rise



Series: In Cold Blood [3]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Not Canon Compliant, Not Frozen 2 Compliant, Original Character-centric, Post-Descendants 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:27:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29012787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebel_On_The_Rise/pseuds/Rebel_On_The_Rise
Summary: There is a secret on the last page of the book.And the clock is ticking down.Erika faces her final challenge in the midst of a war still raging between her home and Auradon. Neither side will bend to the other- and on home ground and in unfamiliar territory, fire and ice threaten to destroy it all.And the clock is ticking down.In a time of traitors and traps, Erika and Elsa face threats unlike anything they’ve yet seen. Secrets lost to the years come to light, and mysteries once on display for all to see fade back into the darkness. Erika must decide for herself what good and evil truly mean, and on which side her heart will stand when the final moment comes.And the clock is ticking down.And nothing will be the same when the story ends.The clock is ticking.
Series: In Cold Blood [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1370848
Comments: 13
Kudos: 15





	Through Frozen Fire

**Author's Note:**

> WE’RE FINALLY HERE, GUYS!
> 
> I literally never thought I would be posting the beginning to the last book in this trilogy!! I am so excited for this one- there are scenes in here that have been waiting in my Google Drive for years, and I finally get to post them for y’all! 
> 
> This one is going to be wild, guys. I have some surprises and twists left before we end this off. I absolutely cannot wait to see your reactions to some of the stuff I’ve got planned.
> 
> Without further ado- here’s the first chapter!

Something was tugging at her legs. Erika kicked at it feebly, but it was relentless, pulling and pulling. She groaned, reaching back and trying to shove it away. 

Her hand touched water. 

Erika bolted up, staring at the waves that lapped at her feet.  _ The fjord. We made it to the fjord. We’re away from Auradon.  _ She sighed, shaking her head to clear the daze away.  _ Where’s Hunter? Where’s Mama? _

She looked around and found her mother lying facedown on the ground, up to her waist in the water. “Mama!” she called, scrambling up and running over to her. “Mama, wake up! It’s over, we’re safe, we’re by the fjord! Wake up!” 

Elsa moaned softly, her eyes flickering but not opening. Erika reached out and shook her arm gently. “Mama? Are you all right?”

Elsa’s eyes opened. “Erika?” she murmured. “Snowflake?” 

“I’m here,” Erika answered, feeling tears burn at her eyes. She took Elsa’s arm, helping her to her feet. “I’m here. We’re safe. I-I think Moana saw your signal and told the fjord to help us. That’s why we’re...by...the sea…” her voice trailed off.

_ We shouldn’t be by the sea.  _

Erika stared at the water, trying to make sense of it. The land beneath her wasn’t the rocky shore of Arendelle. It was sand, grayish sand.  _ But...there’s no sand in Arendelle. Unless...unless we’re not in Arendelle. _

Her thoughts were broken by her mother’s piercing cry. 

Erika whirled in time to see Elsa collapse to her knees. “Mama!” She took her mother’s shaking form in her arms, feeling the violent tremors running through her entire body. Elsa was sobbing, sobbing as if her heart had broken, making no attempt to stifle the sound. “Mama,” Erika breathed, half crying herself. She’d never been so frightened in her life. Her mother had never cried like this. “Mama, what’s wrong?” 

“Erika,” her mother gasped, clinging to her arm. “Erika, I’m sorry.” 

“For what?” Erika said, nearly frantic. “For what, Mama?” 

Elsa trembled like a candle flame in a brisk wind. “I couldn’t- I couldn’t,” she whispered, her hands pressed to her mouth. “I can’t.”

“Mama, it’s okay.” Erika shifted, wet sand giving way under her feet. “It’s okay. I’m here.” 

Elsa let out another piercing cry, burying her face in Erika’s shoulder, her tears wetting Erika’s sequined sleeve. “You’re here. You’re here! And that’s the worst place you could be,” Elsa sobbed. “I never wanted- I never  _ dreamed _ they would actually do this to us. I never imagined they would put us here.” Her chest heaved as she tried to breathe through her sobs. “Erika…”

“You don’t have to say it, Mama,” Erika said, looking around through her own cascade of tears at their surroundings. “I know. I know.”

Futilely, she reached for her  _ magisk.  _ It wasn’t like before, when she had felt it locked away deep inside her, unreachable but still there, even if she couldn’t identify what it was. Her heart was a black, empty pit, the thing that was supposed to fill it torn out.  _ Magisk?  _ she whispered one more time.

But her mind was silent. 

Erika took a deep, shuddering breath. The air was warm, just warm enough to feel thick in her lungs. There was salt in it, salt and sand crusted on her face and her hoodie and her legs.  _ Did they throw us off the bridge? How else would we have washed up from the sea?  _ Hatred gripped her heart like a fist.  _ What did they do to us?  _

She couldn’t remember being taken here, try as she might. The last thing she remembered was fire, and ice, and a snowflake in the sky. And- 

_ And Hunter.  _

She brushed the tears from her eyes and looked around, relieved to find that there was no one else on the beach. It was a desolate place, the sand gray and the sky black. She had never seen more than a picture of the Isle of the Lost, but she knew she was there. No other place could invoke such terror and anguish in her mother, so fearful of being imprisoned again, so worried about her daughter facing the things she had already braved. Elsa was still crying, and it was unsettling to see tears running freely down her face instead of freezing as soon as they touched her skin.

Erika, as she always did when she was upset, rubbed the sleeves of her hoodie. Wet sand fell off as her fingers stroked the sequins that should have been covered in ice. But she had no ice here, no magic. The golden barrier shimmering in the distance had stripped that all away, reached deep into her heart and pulled the magic right out of her. She hated the barrier, hated everything about it down to its color.  _ Gold. Gold as good. Good as gold. Just one more reminder of why we’re here.  _

Erika could feel that something was wrong, very wrong, in the core of her body. That little place that was the first to respond to heat, sending ice surging up to cool her, was aflame. The Isle, thankfully, was not as hot as she had expected. But it didn’t need to be. She and Elsa were born with their magic- they could do nothing but rely on it. Without it…

She had no answer to that. She still remembered what  _ magisk  _ had told her at Auradon Prep. She was half of magic, half of ice- and the Isle had taken both of those away. “So what am I now?” she whispered. 

The Isle seemed to whisper the answer back to her, a mocking voice made of Ben’s, made of Mal’s, made of Beast’s, made of Audrey’s, all twisted together and fighting for who got to speak the loudest.  _ A villain,  _ Audrey said gleefully.  _ A criminal,  _ Beast growled.  _ An evildoer _ , Ben sighed.  _ Wicked,  _ Mal cackled. 

_ Monster!  _ they all roared together.

Erika stumbled back. This was the voice of the Isle- every fear she had ever known tangled into a creature of nightmare. If she had been anywhere but here, she would have stood against it, held on stubbornly to the last threads of hope that kept her from falling.

But there was no hope here.

So she fell. There were no tears now, just numb grief. Faces flashed through her mind- Hunter, Anna, Kristoff, Arvik, Klaus, Olaf, Sven, and so many others. She dug her fingers into the sand, clutching it until her nails found her palms. She needed to hold onto  _ something,  _ or she knew she would be overwhelmed with the panic that came with knowing she would never see any of them again.  _ Tante Anna. Onkel Kristoff. Hunter. _

And just like that, all her thoughts were swept away, replaced with an echo of Hunter’s warning. Erika gasped and stumbled to her feet. “Mama,” she said. “Mama, we can’t stay here. Hunter warned me- he said they’ll kill you. The villains. They think you’re the one who got away. They think you escaped unfairly. He said they’ll kill you for it, Mama,  _ we have to go. _ ”

Elsa nodded, but her eyes were distant, unfocused. Erika had to pull her up, and Elsa leaned on her shoulder as if she couldn’t stand otherwise. 

They made their way slowly up the beach, Erika supporting her mother as the wet sand slid beneath their feet. They could see buildings in the distance, odd, ramshackle structures made of driftwood and rusted metal. Erika’s heart twisted again. This place looked hopeless and miserable. She knew it probably was. The people that lived here had no chance of ever getting off the Isle. 

A chill-  _ she could feel chills now- _ ran through her as she realized that they had no chance of ever getting off the Isle, either. 

The ground beneath them turned from sand to stone, cracked and broken in some places. They were on the edge of what looked like rough docks- a few ships floated in the sea nearby, moored to rotting wooden jetties. 

Erika led her mother to the side of a building, kicking aside piles of trash and guiding Elsa to sit. Something was drastically wrong with her mother- perhaps she was taking the loss of her magic harder than Erika. She had had it longer, after all. But Erika couldn’t help feeling like there was more to it. 

“Mama, can you hear me?” she asked softly. 

Elsa nodded again. She was trembling now, her face a sickly, stony gray. Erika stripped off her hoodie and wrapped it around her mother’s shoulders. “I don’t know what’s wrong, Mama,” Erika whispered, feeling fresh tears prick at her eyes, “and I don’t really know what’s right, either. Come on, you can’t give up. We have to hold out as long as we can- maybe...maybe  _ Tante  _ Anna will figure something out.”

Elsa looked up, then, her voice suddenly clear. “No,” she said. “No. Beast doesn’t listen to rulers of Arendelle. Especially not when it comes to the Isle.”

Erika flinched. “Ben might. He’s not like Beast.”

That seemed to help a little. Elsa sighed and straightened up, looking around. “The docks?” she asked. 

“I think so. It must be nighttime, or else people would be here. We’re safe for now.”

“What did you mean about me?” Elsa asked. 

Erika took a deep breath and explained everything. She left nothing out, telling her mother everything Hunter had said about the Isle of the Lost. 

Elsa didn’t seem surprised by any of it. “I didn’t know Beast would be that stupid,” she murmured. “He advertised how weak he was by letting the villains here know that he couldn’t take me.” 

“And since they have no chance of getting to Beast, they’ll settle for you,” Erika said. “Hunter said revenge was important here. And they want revenge on you.”

Elsa leaned her head back against the wall, her eyes half closing. “What are we going to do?” she whispered.

“For now, we need to just stay here,” Erika told her. “We’re both taking the loss of our magic hard. We need to just stay still and not going anywhere until we get a little more used to it.”

Elsa shook her head. “We aren’t going to get used to it. This is just the beginning, snowflake. It’s hot- already it’s so hot…” her voice trailed off, and she sighed again. 

Erika curled up next to her. “Rest, Mama,” she whispered. “Don’t think about it right now. Just rest.”

Elsa made a little humming sound and closed her eyes. Erika settled in beside her, but she stayed wide awake.

The next few days, weeks, however long they had until their magic loss caught up with them, were going to be hard. Arendelle’s royalty was nothing like the sheltered, pampered royals of Auradon. Arendelle royals knew how to survive. They were tough, strong, and scrappy- but this was a challenge like nothing Erika had faced before.  _ Surviving when we’re slowly dying. That’s what this all comes down to. We have to live while dying.  _

She gazed around, her heart twisting in her chest as she looked at her mother’s sleeping face. More tears came as she watched Elsa’s chest move with the rhythm of her shallow breaths.  _ Mama’s a queen. A queen, of one of the oldest kingdoms that ever existed. And they’ve tossed her to the streets of the Isle. How dare they do that to her? How dare they abandon us here, even if they don’t know that it’s going to kill us?  _ Anger burned hot inside her chest, and she winced at the feeling. No ice left to cool her inflamed emotions. She would have to be careful- any strong emotion might hurt them faster. 

She put her hand on the sleeve of her hoodie, still wrapped around Elsa’s shoulders. Her mother sighed in her sleep and reached up one hand, setting it on top of Erika’s.

Erika felt a faint smile on her lips, and she settled in next to Elsa. She stared up at the dark sky.  _ At least, if we’re here, we’re here together,  _ she thought.

But she knew in her heart that both she and her mother would give anything to see the other back on safe ground again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
